School to get funds to shape up

Avoca AHST Community High School will get a gym full of workout equipment free, in a deal with the National School Fitness Foundation. The program’s Stacey Reed explains founders were concerned about the lack of physical education in schools and the rising rate of childhood obesity. She says they provide schools with a curriculum as well as state-of-the-art equipment, high-tech “assessment kiosks” and even training for the gym teachers. The program’s valued at 180-thousand dollars for grade schools, 300-thousand for high schools that agree to sign up. It’s aerobic and strength training equipment, things like treadmills, bikes, step platforms — like your state-of-the-art gym, she says. It’s up to the school to collect grant money, state and federal funding and private donations and put up the cost of the program, but once they do, each month brings a refund of that price until they’ve gotten it all back. That’s why Reed says it’s “free of cost, but not free of obligation.”The program requires schools to provide not only space, but appropriate flooring, faculty who’ll use the curriculum provided, and data on student health that’s collected in the “health and wellness physical education center,” and in return monthly payments to the school return its investment. Reed says each student gets a password to log their fitness data, ensuring it’ll be confidential. Teachers can input the data and the National School Fitness Foundation tracks it, using results to prove the program is working. While it’s not sweeping schools in the state, Avoca is the 22nd school to join the fitness program. (For more info, schools and teachers can phone NSFF at 801-492-3440)